Marketers Push Pinterest to Ramp Up Advertising

The digital platform, where people post images of everything from future travel destinations to dream kitchen makeovers, continues to befuddle many in the ad community.

These ad executives say that Pinterest has struggled to define itself, and the key role it should play for advertisers. It has touted itself as a scrapbooking site, a visual search engine and, more recently, a vehicle to reach female millennials.

Pinterest has also frustrated some ad buyers with what they say has been a slow rollout of ad products and various data and ad tech offerings.

Noah King, vice president and director of social media at Socialyse, a division of Havas, said that in his mind, digital giants like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat have clearly defined the roles they play for big brands, while Pinterest has resisted settling on a core mission.